Funded Research

Strategic Methods Fund

The Strategic Methods Fund (SMF) is a new Cochrane grant. It targets improving the implementation and use of methods for Cochrane Reviews to meet the needs of healthcare policy makers, professionals and consumers by the 2020s. The grant supports both established methods and those identified as strategically important. We have allocated funds to two projects that will run for the next two years until 2019.

The Methods Innovation Fund was established in 2012 to fund methodological research. Historically the evaluation of research methods is an area which struggles to obtain funding. The 2015 Methods Symposium highlighted the importance of knowing the uncertainties within and limits of the methods we use so that we can measure how they affect review findings. The research funded by the MIF contributes to the wider body of knowledge on research synthesis methods. It also ensures that Cochrane methodology is up to date as methods advance. All projects are expected to provide implementation and dissemination plans. Many projects provide guidance as core output and involve review authors in the development of that guidance.